Installation for continuous production of edible fats, mostly butter and margarine

ABSTRACT

An installation for continuous production of edible fats, mostly butter and margarine, wherein a device for cooling fat emulsion is essentially a chamber accommodating a multinozzle disperser adapted to adequately spread the fat emulsion throughout the chamber volume, and a flexible receptacle for the partially finished product, said disperser being located inside said receptacle, and the augers of a worm press are heated.

United States Patent Vasily Vasilievich Strakhov Moscow;

Jury Nikolaevich Kuzmin, Khimki Moskovskoi oblasti; Alexandr Eliseevich Krikunov; Nikolai lvanovich Tombaev; losif Borisovich Gisin; Anatoly Grigorievich Agafonov; Mikhail Pavlovich Zaitsev; Eda Grigorievna Shender; Vladimir Pavlovich Prityko; Maria Lukyanovna Makeeva, Moscow; Anatoly Mikhailovich Soloviev, Kalach Voronezhskoi oblasti, U.S.S.R.

[72] inventors [21] Appl. No. 805,740

[22] Filed Mar. 10,1969 [45] Patented Jan. 19, 1971 [32] Priority Mar. 16, 1968 [33] U.S.S.R.

[54] INSTALLATION FOR CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF EDIBLE FATS, MOSTLY BUTTER AND MARGARINE 3 Claims, 2 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl. 951/244,

[51] Int. Cl A23d 5/001 [50] Field of Search 99/244, 118,119,120, 121, 122, 123, 163, l64;3l/33,37, 40, 46

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,558,204 6/1951 Wilson et a1, 99/244X 2,649,377 8/1953 Wilsmann.... 99/244 Primary Examiner-Walter A. Scheel Assistant Examiner-Arthur 0. Henderson AttorneyWaters, Roditi, Schwartz 8: Nissen ABSTRACT: An installation for continuous production of edible fats, mostly butter and margarine, wherein a device for cooling fat emulsion is essentially a chamber accommodating a multinozzle disperser adapted to adequately spread the fat emulsion throughout the chamber volume, and a flexible receptacle for the partially finished product, said disperser being located inside said receptacle, and the augers of a worm press are heated.

V PATENTEDZJAVNI 9min I saw 1 or. 2

PAT-ENTEDJAMSIBYI v sum 2 [IF 2 The present inve ntionrelateslto food engineeringequipment and machinery andirnore"specifically; to installations for continuous production" of edible fats, preferably butter and margarine. 7 i

' There is employed presently aninstallationfor continuous producing of edible fats, mostly butter-and margarine (cf. usSR Authors Certificate. No; 142862 said installation comprisinga technologically interlinked device for vacuumcooling of fat emulsion and 'a worm'press adapted to' render the half-finished 'product'obtained from fat emulsion into. a finishedproduct.

ln saidinstallation 'the' device for vacuum-coolingzof fat emulsion= is essentially a chamber accommodatinga"receptacle made asa metal hopper rigidly attached. to the chamber walls and'provided witha mechanical vibration drive.'-. and a single-nozzle disperser. The provision of onlya single-nozzle disperser in the above installation fails to attain a sufficiently high efficiency thereof". sincethe nozzle diameter limits the amount of cream-passingtherethrough. whereas further increase of the nozzle diameter wouldadverselyaffect the processes of creamsprayihgandcooling-and fat crystallization, and make it impossiblefor'the butter grain to arisean thus-impair the entire butter-makingprocess.

Moreover. the aforesaid single-nozzle disperser fails to uniformly spreadthe sprayed fat: emulsion throughout the chamber volume which" fact'adversely affects the effective operation of thechamberiits'elf. 1

Furthermore, clogging of the single-nozzle disperser, which is'devoidof a special filter, results in stopping the feedtof butter grain into the augers of the press. in excessive mechanical processing andthinningof'the butteralready foundin the press, which. in turn; leads to the stoppingof the entire installation, spoilage of thealre'ady worked butter and its wastage:

Anotherdisadvantage of the known'installation, is that the metal hopper thereoffunctlonsineffectively when releasing:

butter grain which is in fact'a loose, viscid and sticky matter. It

is due to this fact that largelumps of butter grain forming on the hopper walls. are liable to give rise to clogs'l occurring in the receiving throat'of the press. when being, periodically shaken off, as they accumulate. onto the'augers. Besides, an'

inadequate discharge of butter ,grain results in a non homogeneous (and even low-standard) finished product as to its chemical composition and quality; On account of the hopper being rigidly heldin position, some places in the vacuum chamber are inaccessible for washing purposes, whereas detaching of the hopper itself when being. washed or for performing preventive maintenance procedures is substantially hampered.

No provision is made in the heretofore-known device for heating the wormpresa, due tothe fact thecoefficientof fric tion effective betweenthe butter massand theaugers may appear'tobe slightly below. equal to and even inexcessof the coefficient of frictioneffective between the butter mass and the housing of the press'whlchin fact affects decisivelythe working capacitythereof The present invention has for its object to providesuch an installation for continuous production of edible, fats, mostly butter and margarine, at a higher production'output, an improved=quality of thepmduct manufactured, as well asa reliable andtrouble-freeoperation.

Saidobject isaccomplished inthatin aninstalla tionfor'continuous productionof edible" fats; mostly butter and margarine, comprising a technologically interlinked device for vacuum-cooling of fatemulsionand a worm press adapted to renderthe half-finished product obtainedfromsaid fat emul sionintoa finished pro'duct. accordingato the invention, said device for coolingtfa't emulsion incorporates amultinozzle disperser adapted 'to :uniformly spread the fat emulsion throughout the chamber volume and aflexiblc receptacle for half-finishedproduct, said receptacle accommodating said disp'ersen'whereas the augers of said wormpressare heated.

Provision of the. aforesaid multinozzle disperser is conductive. to. a considerably higheriefficiency of: the installation. makes it possible to uniformly: spread the fat" emulsion throughout the chamber volume, as well as ensures an intense spraying of the fat emulsion; which, in turn. insures the production of high-quality butter.

The employment of the aforesaidflexible receptacle makes possible a uniform discharge of the butter grain thus avoiding theformation of "clogs" in the'receiver throat of the press; the

uniform-discharge of'the butter grain from the walls of the flexible receptacle, in turn, facilitates theobtaining of a finished product homogeneous in chemical-composition. The fact that the. augers of the press are heated facilitates. substantially the press operation, reduces the loads upon the electric motor and is instrumental in completely evacuating the butter from the'press.

The multinozzle disperser mentioned above ispreferably made as a hemisphericalchamberprovided with a screen strainer located thereinside, whereas the nozzles are preferably arranged around the periphery of said hemispherical chamber.

Provision of a plurality of nozzles in the disperser is conductive to a higher production capacity of the installation, as well as to a more'uniformspraying and spreading of the stream of fat emulsion.

The screen strainer provided inside the disperser chamber is capable of intercepting extraneous particles that are liable to clogthe nozzles andtthereby impair theentire manufacturing process.

It is likewise favorable that the-receptacle for the halfflnished product be madeasa flexible hose inwhich its crosssectional area is gradually reduced in'the-direction of the flow of fat emulsion being cooled therealong.

Such a structuraldesignof the receptacle is instrumental in a uniform release'of the butter grain-fromthe receptacle walls into the receiver throat of the press.

The aforedescribed constructional features of the installation disclosed herein addlto the quality of the manufactured product. provide fora reliable and trouble-free operation of theinstallation and makepossible a ten-fold increase of its production capacity.

Theinvention will be more apparent upon consideration of a specific embodiment thereof to be had in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the installation according to the invention; and

FIG.2 is a longitudinal sectional view an enlarged scale of a multinozzle disperser from the installation in FIG. I.

Now referring to the. drawings, FIG. 1 shows an installation for the continuous production of butter. which comprises a The device 1 for vacuum-cooling of the fat emulsion comprises a multinozzle disperser 4 FIGS. 1 and 2) located inside a chamber 3 and flexible receptacle 5 (FIG. 1) for half-finished product.

The chamber 3 is a cylindrical in shapewith a bottom con-- stituted as a frustum of a cone. The chamber 3 is provided with a lid 6 operated by means of screw elevating device 7. Passing via ahole 8 in the lid 6 is a pipeline 9 to feed high-fat cream into the chamber 3.

The chamber-3 has a hole 10 to release the vapors evolved in thecourse of cooling of the high-fat cream and formation of the butter grain.

Provision is made in the bottom portion of the chamber 3 for a hole ll to discharge the butter grain therefrom. The multinozzle disperser 4 (FIGS. 1 and 2) mounted at the end of the pipeline 9 (FIG. 1), is located inside the chamber 3 in the top portion thereof.

The multinozzle disperser 4 (FIGS. 1 and 2) is essentially a hemispherical. chamber 12 and is adapted to spray and uniformly spread the fat'emulsion throughout the volume of the flexible receptacle 5 (FIG. 1

device 1 for vacuum-cooling of fat emulsion and a worm press Mounted inside the hemispherical chamber 12 (FIGS. 1 and 2) is a screen strainer 13 adapted to intercept any extraneous objects. Tapered nozzles 14 are arranged on the spherical surface of the chamber 12 at different angles to its vertical axis and on various concentric circles. The diameters of the round meshes of the screen strainer 13 are selected to be smaller than the diameters of the exit orifices of the nozzles 14. said tapered nozzles 14 being adapted to spray the fat emulsion.

The flexible receptacle is located inside the chamber 3 (FIG. 1) below the disperser 4 and effects a timely and uniform release of the butter grain, as it is formed, from its walls. The framework of the flexible receptacle 5 is made fast on a rod 16 of a vibrating drive 17 which imparts vertically reciprocating motion to that rod.

It is due to the above-mentioned vertically reciprocating motion performed by the rod 16 that the elastic portion of the receptacle 5, which is in fact a hose gradually narrowed in the direction of the flow therealong of fat emulsion being cooled, continuously performs vibratory motion.

The worm press 2 is located below the device 1 for vacuumcooling of the fat emulsion and is free to communicate therewith through the receiver throat 18.

The worm press 2 consists of a housing 19. a pair of augers 20 and a pair of augers 21 of which the augers 20 are located in the press housing. whereas the augers 21 are arranged in a tapered discharge nozzle 22.

Both augers 20 and 21 are located in a hollow shaft 23 inside which is a pipeline 24. Walls 25 of the press 2 are concentric and form a jacket over the whole housing 19 of the press 2. The hollow shaft 23 has one of its ends connected with a gearbox 26 of a drive 27. An end 28 of the pipeline 24 serves for delivery of hot water. whereas a free space provided between the pipeline 24 and the hollow shaft 23 serves for removal of hot water through a branch pipe 29 after having circulated over the hollow shaft 23 and the heating jacket of the housing 19.

Due to continuous circulation of hot water which is in constant contact with the surface of the augers 20 and 21, the layer of butter that is adjacent to the latter softens whereby the coeflicient of friction between the butter and the augers is reduced, while adequate stirring of butter and its squeezing out of the press 2 is attained.

A perforated partition plate 30 is provided between the housing 19 and the tapered discharge nozzle 22 for mechani cal treatment of the finished butter.

The installation for continuous production of butter disclosed in the present invention functions as follows.

High-fat cream is fed through the pipeline 9 into the multinozzle disperser 4 (FIGS. 1 and 2), wherein said high-fat cream is filtered through the screen strainer 13 and then is sprayed through the tapered nozzles 14 into the flexible receptacle 5 (FIG. 1).

The high-fat cream forms a spray due to its being vigorously evaporated when discharging from the nozzles 14 into a lower pressure area. Then. the particles of fat emulsion after having cooled and solidified due to moisture evaporation under vacuum settle onto the walls of the flexible receptacle 5 and. while colliding with one another and against the receptacle walls, turn into butter grain which is discharged into the throat l8 owing to vibratory motion continuously performed by the flexible receptacle 5.

Thereupon, the butter grain is discharged through the orifice of the throat 18 into a chamber 31 of the press 2. wherein the butter grain is thoroughly stirred and. under the pressure exerted by the augers 20, is forced through the perforations of the partition plate 30 and into the tapered nozzle 22 as the finished butter.

The above-described construction of the installation makes it possible to manufacture high-quality finished product. at the same time providing reliable and trouble-free operation and high production capacity.

We claim: g 1. An installation for continuous production of edible tats,

mostly butter and margarine. comprising: a vacuum chamber; a multinozzle disperser located in said vacuum chamber to spray cream and form fat emulsion throughout the volume of said chamber; a flexible receptacle for receiving the sprayed product said receptacle being located in said vacuum chamber. said disperser being disposed inside said receptacle; said chamber serving to cool the sprayed cream discharged from said disperser; a press at the bottom portion of the vacuum chamber to render the product obtained from the fat emulsion into a finished product; said press having augers that are heated.

2. An installation as claimed in claim 1. wherein the multinozzle disperser comprises a hemispherical chamber, a screen strainer in said chamber. and spraying nozzles arranged peripherally on said chamber.

3. An installation as claimed in claim 1. wherein the flexible receptacle comprises a hose having a cross-sectional area gradually diminishing in the direction of the flow therealong of cooled fat emulsion. 

2. An installation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the multinozzle disperser comprises a hemispherical chamber, a screen strainer in said chamber, and spraying nozzles arranged peripherally on said chamber.
 3. An installation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flexible receptacle comprises a hose having a cross-sectional area gradually diminishing in the direction of the flow therealong of cooled fat emulsion. 